Sweat’s the obvious keeper for those looking for the follow-up to Nellyville.

Brett Anderson has always been the weakest link, so pointing out weak rhymes and the frequent unconvincing moments (she’s upstaged by the background vocals on the highlight “It’s So Hard”) seems cruel.

The majority of the album is comprised of covers that don’t deviate enough from the source material to validate their existence.

My problem with Stewart, his band, and the new Fabulous Muscles is that all too often his desire to provoke seems like an affectation.

For all its surprises, Creature Comforts marks one of the first times Black Dice has sounded like a band in transition, and consequently lacks much of the serendipitous splendor of their previous efforts.

A one-paced affair, enamoured with drawn-out ambient intros, crystalline guitars layered with reverb, four-note rumbles for basslines, choruses that go on forever and occasional, half-hearted stabs at “groove”. Meaning that it sounds EXACTLY as you would expect U2 to sound.

The Kills' sludgy punk-blues doesn't contain many pop melodies or catchy choruses.

An uneven record that came out a few years too late.

Feels like Interpol-by-numbers.

The fascinating thing about Gwen Stefani’s record is not how different it sounds from No Doubt, but how similar it sounds to the producers that she works with and how their collaborations usually fall flat because of the rehashing of tired ideas and plodding predictability of her arrangements.

Honestly, the first few listens are the worst; Cedars grows on you to the extent that you get past its often-horrendous lyrics after a while and learn to appreciate its strongest moments.

Solarized is unlikely to win or lose Brown many fans, but the world of music would certainly be a duller place without him.

Even if this album perhaps only has one hope for a hit single, the album is much stronger and reflects that unlike many of her contemporaries, Carlton is moving forwards and towards something.

His new album isn’t quite as good as Disposable Arts, but it’s similarly engaging--he is both confident and insecure, and this incongruity defines his music.

Nice enough melodies and average tunes are repeatedly elevated by the superlative, rich and detailed production which makes Delays sound like a much better band than they actually are.

Suffers from a distinct lack of vision.

The middling adult contemporary slop, although awful, isn’t what ultimately drowns In Our Gun. That blame can fall squarely in the lap of misguided attempts at moody electronica, something the band has more successfully dabbled in previously.

The combined effect is gargantuan. It’s big, it’s fast, it’s loud, it’s got a backbeat you can’t move with a juggernaught and it’s definitely not clever.

There’s really nothing to this record.

But overall as much as the listener should be prepared to hate this record and its pretensions towards anticipating pop trends, it isn’t necessarily a failure.

Ultimately, Meltdown isn’t as dramatic a failure as its title seems to be begging me to pronounce it--in fact it isn’t really a failure at all. It’s just a crucial dip in momentum.

This clearly isn’t rave, or even a reinvention of rave. They’re an indie band with a half-decent gimmick.

Sure, there are flashes of undeniable brilliance, but most certainly not the full wattage of the awakening sun as advertised--far from the record Chasny's capable of making.

The downside of the Brakes development is the loss of the raw power that accompanied some of their more demented moments.

This is an album not entirely worthy of the patience it requires to be appreciated track by track.

But despite better production and the unbeatable chemistry of Coomes and Weiss, When the Going Gets Dark just doesn’t have as many memorable songs, nor does it spark the same kind of curious sympathy their best micro-miseries have.

Always a wee bit more clever than anyone gave them credit for, the Keys are now a pretty good Zeppelin knockoff for the indie crowd, and little more.

If all you’re looking for is more Tobin material, then you’ve come to the right place. If you’re expecting anything more, you’d best look elsewhere.